Sunday, February 24, 2008

It's another tote bag. This is one of the big ones, and it's for Flannery of Mediacrity.

Front:

Innards:

Angled view that I seem to like:

Sorry for the ridiculously short post, but it's late and I'm sleepy. I did manage to take pictures of this before we headed out to run some errands this afternoon before having dinner with Ian and Lisa (read: before it got dark, so the pictures aren't as terrible as they usually are).

Also, I realize that the last sentence was poorly constructed, but I am too lazy to edit it.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Lorne and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day with big gifts or fancy dinners or anything. This year he had an abstract for a conference due the next day, so we ended up celebrating (in our minimal way) on the 15th. Lorne made gigantic T-bone steaks encrusted with blue cheese and port wine sauce, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Encrusted meats are delicious.

I made dessert.

This is a cheesecake with toffee bits (still in the springform pan). I found the recipe at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. I haven't made a cheesecake since I was 16 because I've never had a springform pan before (I made the one when I was 16 in a pan borrowed from my friend's family, then gave them the cheesecake). We got this for our wedding and I figured it was high time to break it in.

I was quite pleased with how easily the cheesecake came out of the pan.

Here are the apples that went on top. They were the most delicious part of the cheesecake. Apples + butter + sugar = yum.

And here's the caramel I made for the top. I cooked it a little longer than I should have - the sugar mixture went from clear to caramel colored pretty quickly. It tasted a wee bit burnt, but not so much that we couldn't eat it. I failed to take a picture of everything all put together, so just imagine that the beautiful picture on Peabody's blog is what ours looked like.

I was pretty happy with how it turned out, especially seeing as how I completely messed up Lorne's lemon meringue birthday pie the previous week.

It looks normal here, doesn't it? But then Lorne cut it open, and this was what was hiding under the pretty meringue:

Lemon meringue soup. I missed the step in the recipe that said to pre-bake the crust, so the crust was all mushy and the lemon goo got all goopy and gross. Blagh. In my defense, I've only made two pies before in my entire life, and both of those were many years ago. I'm more of a cake person.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Emily Jo emailed me and told me she liked the bag I made for Megan and asked if I could make one in pink and black. I apologize for the short post, but it's late and I spent most of the day cutting things out and sewing them in an attempt to 1) build stock for PenguinBot and 2) update my blog more often. As a result, I am tired.

Also, because it is late and I have no natural daylight, the pictures aren't great. I didn't want to wait though, because after work tomorrow we're going to see Greg Mortenson (author of Three Cups of Tea), and by the time that's done, there will again be no daylight.

I originally bought the polka dot fabric to make a sun dress for myself, but seeing as how I'm pregnant and have no idea when I'll be back down to a size where I'd be interested in wearing a sun dress (let alone making one), I decided to make bags out of it. There are more bags using it forthcoming. I can always buy more fabric when I get around to making a dress.

Emily Jo said she didn't care what shade of pink I used, she just asked that the fabric not be too busy. Considering my history of using busy fabrics, I was glad she let me know. I probably would have used something with crazy flowers and polka dots and stripes all combined. I hope she likes it.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

I'd like to say that I've been really busy in the last week and a half, but I'd be lying to you. If I start lying to you now about little things like being busy, soon I'll start lying to you about larger things, like where I spent last weekend, or how old I am, or who makes all the crap I post in my blog. Anyway, I finished my fingerless gloves before going to Boston, but then failed to take a picture of me wearing them in Boston. As soon as I find them I'll put up a picture of the finished goods. In the interest of proving to you that I wasn't lying about Boston, here is a picture of me with a Bostonian statue:

Actually, I am wearing the gloves in this picture, but the sleeves of Lorne's coat are long enough that they went past my knuckles.

After getting home from Boston, I slept a lot. I attempted to start knitting some legwarmers, but after three rows they bored me. I finished sewing one coin purse out of the five I have cut out. And I sat around a lot. And slept. I blame this guy:

Then, my sister-in-law had a baby! Of course, she lives in Denver, and I won't get to meet the little munchkin for at least a few months, but this exciting news distracted me from getting any work done for at least two days, waiting for news and pictures and to find out her name (which I still don't know, but it sounds like her nickname will be Zaley). She's adorable and I wish we could go to Denver now.